


sound over static

by Chrome



Category: Orbiting Human Circus of the Air (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, RAINSTORMS, Tinnitus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 01:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8646331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrome/pseuds/Chrome
Summary: A thunderstorm prompts the team to hole up in the broadcast ballroom.  Julian has good reason to miss his music and John Cameron is capable of kindness.





	

The autumn brought rain to Paris, a little sooner than any of them had expected. That morning had been foggy and dim, but still the sun had crept through the wispy grey clouds. As the evening drew to a close, the clouds had darkened to block out the moon. Now, lightning split the sky in a brilliant flash outside the window of the broadcast ballroom. Water dripped down through a leak in the ceiling into a bucket, which Jacques stood over, frowning.

The four people who remained after the show—Leticia, Jacques, John Cameron, and Julian—had confined themselves to the tower as the storm waged war against it. At moments, Leticia felt, it almost seemed to shift in the wind, but perhaps that was only an overactive imagination.

“We stay here,” Leticia said, firmly. “It is the safest place for us, yes?”

“Where is Mr. Cameron?” Julian asked. He was shifting from side to side, tugging at the sleeves of his ragged jacket.

“Checking on the acts,” said Jacques. He was grimacing. “I don’t want to spend the night here. I want to go home.”

“Well,” Leticia said, “I am afraid zat is not an option. Unless you would like to drown, in which case zat might be arranged.”

Julian stopped shifting uncomfortably, only to make a less-stealthy-than-intended sprint towards the door.

“Julian, zat are you doing?” Leticia demanded, catching him by the collar. “You already live here!”

“I—I need to go up to the roof—I’ve forgotten something—“

“You need to stay here,” she commanded. “It will be zere in ze morning.” Probably soaked in water, if he had indeed forgotten something outside, but certainly there. And probably not any more wet than it would already be at that moment.

“No, you don’t understand, I—“ he covered his ear with his hand. “I n-need to go—“

“Sit down,” Jacques snapped. “We’re stuck here, you’re stuck here, don’t make it worse.”

“You see zat?” Leticia pointed out the window as another flash rent the darkness. “Lightning! Dangerous! You cannot go climbing ze tower! Ze tower is metal!”

Miserably, Julian sat where he stood. Leticia released him and retreated to the window to look at the sheets of rain sluicing down the glass.

“Crazy kid,” Jacques muttered. He looked towards Julian and was about to say something louder and more pointed, but the door to the broadcast ballroom slammed open and John Cameron stalked in.

“The acts are secure,” was all he said, and then sat down on the stage with a sigh.

“So we are stuck here,” Leticia said. “Yes?”

As if in answer, the sound of rain against the windows intensified.

“Yes,” said Jacques, with a groan. “Cards?”

Leticia shook her head. Jacques, after a moment, cast a glance at John Cameron. “No.” Julian just sniffled.

With a shrug, he retreated to the side of the room and began to play a hand of solitaire. Leticia laid out her coat and shrugged off her scarf, fashioning it into a sort of pillow. “I am going to sleep,” she announced. Past midnight, the city outside quieting itself beneath tightly-latched shutters. The electric lights gleamed below, faintly and water-distorted.

Jacques waved a hand. “I will soon.”

Julian was making a quiet whining noise that gradually grew louder. “And zat, exactly, are you doing?” Leticia demanded, lifting her head from her work.

“Humming,” Julian said weakly.

“Zat is not humming,” Leticia said. “Do not do zat.”

“I’m sorry,” Julian said. “It’s just—usually when it gets like this, I just go listen to the radio on the girders? But it’s raining, and, and so I can’t, and I’m stuck here and there’s no music—“

Jacques mouthed “On the girders?” at Leticia, who rolled her eyes.

“Julian,” John Cameron cut him off. “What exactly is the matter?”

“It’s just the ringing,” Julian said, miserably. “In my ear? And usually when it gets bad I just, I listen to music to the radio to drown it out, except I can’t, so.”

“Ze ringing in your ear?” Leticia asked.

“It normally doesn’t bother me!” Julian insisted, although the fact that tears were welling up in his eyes seemed to suggest that might not be true. “But it’s really bad tonight, and I can’t—“ He broke off and pulled his knees to his chest.

As if it was mocking them, the next roar of thunder seemed to rattle the windowpanes.

“Sorry,” Julian whispered, in the silence that followed.

“Ze radio,” Leticia said, “It drowns zis ‘ringing’ out?”

“Yes,” Julian said. He rested his forehead on his knees.

The silence continued for only another moment before John cleared his throat and, quietly, began to sing.

_“Rain falls hard, burns dry…”_

Julian looked up, eyes widening. Leticia tilted her head toward John as he continued singing.

“Does zat help, zen?” she asked in an undertone.

Julian nodded, apparently unwilling to talk over John. After a moment, he uncurled himself a bit and edged closer.

“Better than that whining noise,” Jacques grumbled. Leticia shot him a look and he went quiet. After another few moments, he stacked his cards and put them away, leaning back against the wall and shutting his eyes.

_“A dream, or a song…”_

Julian was now sitting up, frozen. Apparently making a decision, he stood and moved, sitting down right next to John. For a moment he sat, and then almost tipped over to be leaning against him.

Jacques winced, again watching from his position against the wall. Leticia’s eyebrows went up.

John Cameron, for a moment, did not react. After a half-beat-too-long pause, he sang the next line.

_“Know that you’re whole, and you’re shining…”_

Julian sighed, so quiet you could hardly hear it, and shut his eyes, his head settled against John’s shoulder. Jacques was still watching and caught John’s gaze; John gave him an icy look. Jacques shrugged and tugged his cap down over his face. Leticia finally lay down too, tugging her coat about her.

The rain continued, rattling against the windows. Jacques was the first to drift off, slumping down further against the wall as his breathing gave way to quiet snores.

Leticia listened, but could hear none of Julian’s ringing. Perhaps Julian could not, either, over John’s voice, because he drifted off as well, curled up against the radio host. His hand, she noticed, had curled around the edge of John's coat

Leticia lifted herself up from the coat again and made eye contact with John. He gave her the slightest of nods, otherwise unmoving, Julian now asleep but still settled against him. She smiled and lay back down and closed her eyes, letting the sound echo and settle, like cool air, into the empty ballroom.

_“A transmission, on the midnight radio…”_

**Author's Note:**

> Listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, went to a live show and fell permanently in love. And here we are. Hit me up on Tumblr as catalists if you want to talk about it!
> 
> Oh, and [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMWcPAEpuq4) is John's song.


End file.
